Speed cameras could be coming to a city street near you.
At Monday’s council meeting, city politicians agreed to look into bringing an automated speed enforcement program to Orillia, directing city staff to report back on the cost and feasibility of implementing the program.
With one council member highlighting “excessive speed” on city streets, council directed staff to enter a memorandum of understanding with the Town of Newmarket to further investigate their speed camera initiatives.
“There's no question that we have an issue with excessive speed on our streets in this city,” said Coun. David Campbell. “To me, this is one of the most effective means available of calming traffic. People are going to slow down if they know they're going to get a ticket.”
During discussion, city staff recommended that any approved speed cameras should be installed in community safety zones throughout the city, and said that speed thresholds for a ticket – whether 1 km/h or 5 km/h above the posted limit – can be determined by council should it choose to move forward with the initiative.
“The Highway Traffic Act recommends that they go into community safety zones. You need a very good reason to locate them outside of community safety zones,” said Steven Murphy, project engineer. “Typically, community safety zones are areas of heightened safety concerns.”
Coun. Jeff Czetwerzuk said he supported seeing a report on speed cameras and whether ticket revenues can pay for the program, but added he is not sure he’ll support it “if we're losing money on the whole system as a whole.”
Council previously discussed earmarking $250,000 for a speed camera program at last year's budget deliberations, but ultimately deferred the issue.
Other members of council stressed the initiative is meant to improve community safety, and not to bring in revenue from speeding tickets issued by the cameras.
“What I want to make very clear to folks is that this is in no way a cash grab,” said Campbell. “This is not about the city making money. This is simply about us improving safety on our streets.”
In Barrie, speed cameras issued over 9,200 tickets between December 2023 and February 2024, at an average ticket fine of $90.
“Talking to our colleagues in Barrie who've implemented this, it's not the money, it's the safety,” said Mayor Don McIsaac. “They've noticed that when they put them in areas that speeding does reduce. That's … the main goal, and that's what we're after here.”
